DIVA digs into the factors which contribute to these statistics
BY KERRIE DRAGHI, IMAGE BY GETTY
A decades-long study published in May this year has revealed that lesbian and bisexual women are more likely to die earlier than heterosexual women, 20% for lesbians and 37% for bisexual women.
The study looked at a population of 100,000 female nurses in the US between 1989-2022, comparing 30 years of death records to their participants’ reported sexual orientations. Though they did not look at trans women’s mortality rates, we know that trans women die sooner than the general population due to poor mental health, hate crime and the staggering impacts of discrimination. This study, however, looks at differences in mortality rates for lesbian and bisexual women compared to heterosexual women.
As such, it is not representative of all queer women. But with such a high number of participants and spanning several decades, we can use it to understand how the oppression faced by lesbians and bisexual women could lead to worse health and earlier mortality.
One explanation, as described by the report’s senior author Britanny Chalton, is biphobia leading to isolation: “Bisexual women face distinct stressors from outside, as well as within, the LGBTQ community that are rooted in biphobia. Additionally, bisexual people are often excluded from various communities because they’re assumed to be straight or gay based on their partner’s gender.” Several studies have shown that social isolation can result in worse health, which unfortunately the LGBTQIA community is at a higher risk of.
On top of this, queer women face the double oppressions of both sexism and homophobia, taking their toll on our mental health, not to mention the fact that most of us exist at other intersections of race, disability and class. It is clear that being a part of an oppressed group affects mental health – half of LGBTQIA people have experienced depression and one in eight LGBTQIA people have attempted suicide between the ages of 18-24.
Furthermore, 64% of LGBTQIA people have experienced violence or abuse. In 2017, one in five LGBT peopleexperienced a hate crime or similar incident due to their sexuality. For all women, gender-based violence is a frequent threat to our safety, lives and mental health. One woman is killed by a man every 2.7 days and at least 1,924 women have been killed by men in the UK since 2010, records the Femicide Census.
Overall, LGBTQIA people are found to use alcohol and drugs more frequently than heterosexual people, a result of poor mental health. Lesbian and bisexual women under the age of 50 are found to smoke and drink more heavily than heterosexual women, contributing negatively to our health and mortality. Additionally, much of our social spaces in the LGBTQIA community are night-clubs and bars where it is normal to drink, smoke and occasionally take drugs.
There is also a health disparity for queer women. We are at a higher risk of developing type two diabetes, compared to heterosexual women, and at an increased risk for breast, cervical and ovarian cancer.
It’s possible that sexism and homophobia in healthcare make queer women feel less likely to want to visit a GP who could find symptoms early or even believe that our GPs will listen to us when we report symptoms. 36% of queer women have said that a doctor has assumed they were heterosexual. 15% of queer women have never gone for a cervical screening, compared to just 7% of heterosexual women over the age of 25. This same study also found that 14% of queer women had been refused or discouraged from having a cervical screening because of their sexuality.
Obviously, being LGBTQIA and a woman does not automatically lead to bad health, substance abuse or depression. Many of us will lead very happy and long lives. What this research shows is that discrimination in healthcare and society generally has many negative effects on our health that could shorten our lifespans.
Ray Carter (they/them), who works with the National LGBT+ Partnership to reduce LGBTQIA health inequalities, explains it: “We can’t underestimate the severe impact of misogyny, transmisogyny, homophobia, and biphobia on all aspects of health and care that women rely on. These are at the root of the barriers that prevent lesbian and bisexual women from feeling safe enough to access care. Our health and care systems have lost lesbian and bisexual women’s trust, and younger mortality rates are part of the devastating effect of this.”
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